1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical card, and particularly to an electrical card having a grounding plate for providing a grounding path from a circuit board received in the card to metallic covers of the card, and having a first connector securely interlocked with a supporting frame within the card.
2. The Prior Art
A conventional electrical input/output card comprises a pair of separate metallic top and bottom covers configured to be engaged together, a supporting frame, a circuit board having electrical elements mounted thereon, and primary and secondary electrical connectors. In assembly, the circuit board is equipped with the connectors at opposite ends thereof and then attached to the supporting frame before being sandwiched between the top and bottom covers.
Since the primary electrical connector of such a conventional electrical card is only fixed to the supporting frame by means of a rectangular protrusion received in a corresponding recess to prevent longitudinal movement of the circuit board with regard to the supporting frame, lateral movement of the circuit board is still possible which may adversely affect signal transmission between the card and the related system. Such prior art electrical cards are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,242,310, 5,339,222, 5,397,857, and 5,413,490.
Furthermore, a grounding plate is often disposed on an electrical card connector for suppressing electromagnetic interference. However, since the grounding plate is fixed to the card connector and not received within the electrical card, electrostatic accumulation within the card cannot be properly discharged which may adversely affect signal transmission. Such a card connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,260.
Hence, an improved I/O electrical card device is needed to eliminate the above mentioned defects of current I/O card devices.